The Human Factor
by shadrougeforever
Summary: When the Chaotix find a human girl lost on their planet, it's their job to help her find her way back home along with serious conflict between her and Shadow. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1**

**THE DISCOVERY**

Later that night in Hao's base, Hao stood in front of a closed door and slowly opened it. He walked into a white room and saw a young girl with pink hair and long pigtails on both sides of her head sitting in a wooden chair. It looked like she was drawing something in a sketch book. He walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder.

The girl jumped and turned to the blue wolf. When she completely turned around, she was not just an ordinary person. She was a human. Her blue eyes glistened with innocence as she said his name, "Hao."

"Hannah, how are you tonight?" He asked.

She frowned and ignored his question, "Are you working on the machine?"

He crossed his arms, "Why do you want to know that?"

She placed her hands together and begged the wolf, "Please Hao, you promised that I could return home if..."

"You worked for me", he finished.

"Yes. How long exactly?" She asked.

He placed a finger to his chin, "Hmm, let me think. Oh, probably for a long ass time."

Her eyes filled with tears, "Hao", she wheezed. "You promised me on the day you found me. You promised."

The evil wolf smiled, "Listen up, babe. I'm the one who decides who goes where and what I decide goes understand?"

She grabbed his silver vest, "But you're not being fair!"

The wolf's eyes lit up in rage as the human touched him. He clenched his fist and punched the girl out of the chair and onto the floor.

Hannah hit the floor hard with some of her blood seeping out of her nose. She placed her hand over her bleeding nose and slowly turned to Hao.

Hao's fist shook in anger, "Don't you dare touch me like that ever again you filthy human!"

Hannah just stared into his furious yellow eyes and watched him turn his back and walk out of the room. She then fell back onto the floor and started to sob loudly.

Hao slammed the door shut behind him and locked it with a lock. "Damn human", he muttered. All of a sudden the alarm had went off and the whole place lit up with red lights. "Huh? What's going on?" He ran into a room full of monitors and started to look for whoever was in the base. He then saw on one of the monitors a fast black blur pass one of the security cameras. "Whoa! Hold up!" He rewound the footage and paused at the black blur. He studied the blur until he finally figured out who it was. "Damn", he muttered. "Damn pest!" He ran over to a big red button protected that was by glass and punched it. "Send all guard robots throughout the area!"

Meanwhile somewhere in the base, a small kid bee was tossing a screwdriver up and down in his hand while he was looking at most of the robots that Hao meant to send lying on the cold floor nonoperational. The bee smirked, "Hao really needs to fix that. Oh well, back to the X-jet. Knowing Shadow, he'll probably Chaos Control the rest back to the Chaotix." The bee then flew down the long narrow hallway.

In another hallway, a black and red hedgehog was running down the hallway looking like he was searching for something. "Where is it? Where?" He was then suddenly stopped by a huge robot that was standing in his way with its gun pointing at him. The hedgehog frowned, "I don't have time for this."

Later somewhere in the base, a green crocodile and purple chameleon were destroying the robots that were in that area of the base.

The chameleon took out a huge shuriken and threw it at one robot and sliced it in half. The weapon also cut through the robot behind the first one, destroying it as well. He picked his shuriken off the floor and faced his boss, "You doing okay, Vec?"

The green crocodile used his powerful punches and destroyed the robot that was in front of him. He watched as every single piece of metal fell to the floor until he turned to the chameleon, "I don't know about you Espio, but I'm having fun."

He smirked, "I'll say. Hey have you seen, Tonya? She was just with us wasn't she?"

"Oh yeah, she said we were being incredibly childish with destroying the robots so she went off with Shadow to find that disk." He shrugged, "At least I think they're still together."

Espio's face turned bright red, "SHE WENT OFF WITH SHADOW!" He shouted. "Together? He and she? It's true she does love him!" He sat on the floor and started to play with his kunai. "I can't believe she ditched me for him. How could she?"

Vector clenched his fist with annoyance and hit Espio in the back of the head, "Will you knock it off!"

In another part of the base, a purple cat was walking down a narrow hallway until she heard sobbing noises coming from a door that had a lock on it. She placed her ear on the door making sure she had heard crying. She took her ear from the door, "Someone must be in there." She took out a fan with an extremely sharp blade on the end of it and cut the lock off of the door. Afterwards she slowly opened the door and saw a human girl with pink hair laying on the floor sobbing. She gasped, "A human?"

The human girl quickly took her face from the floor and faced the purple cat with fright. "Keep away from me", she begged.

The cat put away her fan and held her hand out towards the human, "Don't be afraid, dear. My name's Tonya. I'm apart of a team called the Chaotix Detective Agency. I'm here to help you."

The human wiped her tears away, "You're...not like Hao."

She shook her head, "Of course not. Now take my hand. I'm getting you out of here."

The human made a small smile, "My name is Hannah." She took the cat's hand.

In another part of the base, the black hedgehog defeated three robots and wasn't exhausted at all. Afterwards he crossed his arms, "Humph."

"Shadow!" A familiar voice called from behind him.

The hedgehog looked behind and saw a furious purple chameleon running towards him. "Huh? Espio?"

The chameleon grabbed the hedgehog by his coat, "All right Shad, where is she?"

"Who?"

"Don't play stupid with me. Tonya!"

"Tonya? The hell if I know."

Espio's grip around his coat eased, "You mean...she's not with you?"

He shook his head.

Espio let go of him and sighed, "I guess she really does hate men."

"Well, well, if it isn't the loser detectives", a sinister voice said from behind them.

They turned and faced a blue wolf holding a shiny disk in his hand.

Vector's mouth hung open in shock, "That bastard has the disk!"

Hao looked at the small disk in his hand, "Oh, you mean this?" He placed his free hand on the other side of the disk and then broke the disk in half.

Everyone gasped in horror as they watched the broken disk fall to the floor in pieces.

"No he didn't!" Espio shouted.

Shadow glared at him in anger, "That's it, you crossed the line." He was about to run up to him to hit him, but Vector held him back.

"No Shad, it's not worth it."

"What the hell are you talking about? That bastard is dead!"

"Cool it, Shad. That disk wasn't that important anyway", Vector let go of Shadow, hoping he had completely calmed down. "It only had his permanent record on it."

The chameleon crossed his arms, "We still gotta start all of his information over."

"Screw this. I'm ready to get out of this dump anyway." Vector looked over to Shadow, "Lets go, Shad."

The hedgehog nodded and turned to Hao, "Oh and before we go, the love of my life made a little present for all the trouble we had to come here for a lousy disk just for you." He took out a small blue device that was in the shape of a sphere and threw it towards Hao, "Chaos Control!" Just as they left Hao caught the strange device and had no idea what it was. He started to panic, "What the hell is this thing!" Then a bright white light had appeared from the device and blew up everything in sight. Afterwards Hao was still standing after the blast with a light blue force field around him. He sighed with relief, "Thank god I operated this thing sooner." He cut off the force field that was around him. He gritted his teeth in anger as he looked around his destroyed base. "Those punks almost killed me with their little toy. And they completely destroyed my base!" He punched the ground with his fist, "I'll get them for this", he growled.

Later, Shadow, Espio, and Vector arrive back at the Chaotix with the girls and Charmy waiting for them.

Once Shadow stepped through the door he was tackled to the floor by a little brown squirrel child.

"Detective Hedgehog! You came back!"

He took his hand and stroked through her hair, "Yeah, I missed you too, Kayla."

"Shadow", a female voice called from beside him.

Shadow looked up and saw a female white bat smiling at him. She held her hand out to him, "Looks like you need a hand."

Kayla got off of him and allowed him to get up.

Shadow took her hand and got off the floor, "Thanks, Rouge."

"You'll never guess what Tonya found in Hao's base."

"Well, that'll explain why I didn't see her the whole time. So what did she find?"

Just as Rouge was about to tell him, Espio had shouted out.

"A human!" Espio shouted while he was pointing at a young girl with pink hair.

"An actual human? I don't believe it", Charmy said with disbelief. "None of them are in this world anymore...supposedly."

The human girl spoke, "You mean you all haven't seen a human before?"

"Not a real one", Vector said.

"Her name is Hannah everybody", Tonya said.

"My name's Vector", the green crocodile said.

"Espio", the purple chameleon said.

"Tonya", the purple cat said.

"Charmy", the kid bee said.

"Rouge", a white bat said.

"Kayla", the small squirrel child said.

"Shadow", the black and red hedgehog said coldly.

Hannah studied the hedgehog that had his arms crossed acting like he didn't care. 'I can't believe it, he was right. Animals do exist in another world.'


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**THE ORIGIN OF HUMANS AND ANIMALS**

The hedgehog turned to the staring human, "Hey human, you got a problem?"

Hannah then snapped out of it and had stopped staring at Shadow, "I'm sorry. I just never saw mutated animals before."

"Mutated!" Shadow shouted with anger.

Rouge placed her hands on her lover's shoulders, "Calm down, Shadow. I'm sure she didn't mean it like that."

Hannah was then confused, "If you aren't mutated, then what are you?"

"We're just like you, Hannah", Charmy answered.

"Only covered in fur", Espio added.

"How did you get here in the first place, Hannah?" Vector asked.

Hannah began to answer, "Well...back on my planet, my grandfather always believed that myth about humans and animals once living together. So he built some kind of machine to go to different worlds. It didn't work with my grandfather for some reason, but it worked for me. Now the only problem is that I don't know how to get back home."

Charmy smiled warmly at the human, "Don't worry, Hannah. I'll get on making another machine for you. I'll work my butt off if I have to, just to get you back home."

Hannah smiled, "Thank you, Charmy."

Vector crossed his arms, "I can't believe humans on Earth actually tell that story about us. I thought they wanted to keep it a secret."

"A secret?" Hannah repeated blankly.

"Yeah", Tonya said. "You see Hannah, you're in Mobius now and many, many years ago humans and animals once lived here together."

"Really? So the myth is actually true?"

The cat nodded, "That's right."

"But what happened? Why are there no humans left?"

"Humans and animals never got along that great. Lets leave it at that", Espio answered.

Hannah then felt her blue skirt being tugged on. She looked down and saw a small brown squirrel child studying her. "Huh?"

The child looked up at her, "You're very pretty for being a human, Hannah."

Hannah smiled warmly and kneeled down to the child, "Thank you, Kayla."

Shadow stood beside them and sighed, "So, where will she stay for the time being?"

Vector had answered quickly, "Well since you brought it up why don't you, Shadow."

"What?"

Vector smiled, "Besides, it looks like she and Kayla became fast friends."

Shadow took another look at them and saw them laughing together, "Fine."

Kayla's smile widened, "You get to stay with me and Detective Hedgehog, Hannah. I'm so happy!"

"Yeah, it's going to be great", Hannah had said back.

Later, Shadow had lead Kayla and Hannah back to his house. When they got inside, Hannah immediately started to look at the pictures that were hung on the wall.

While she was looking, Shadow had looked down at Kayla who was beside him. "Kayla, go upstairs and get ready for bed."

She looked up at him innocently, "But, I don't want to."

"It's way too late for you. Now go, you'll be tired in the morning and we have things to do."

Kayla sighed, "Okay."

Shadow watched as she walked upstairs, "I'll be there in a few minutes", he said to her.

"Okay", she answered.

Afterwards, Shadow looked back over to Hannah that was staring at a photo of a young black and red hedgehog that was standing between a light blue hedgehog that looked just like him and a pink hedgehog.

Hannah stared at the picture more until she heard Shadow's cold voice beside her.

"What are you doing?"

She jumped only a little and turned to him. "Um, I'm looking at some pictures that's all."

He turned to the picture she was looking at, "The two hedgehogs are my mother and father", he said in a sad voice.

"Why do you sound so melancholy about it?" She asked.

"My father died when I was young and my mother and I never really talked much. It was either her career or some kind of meeting. So she and I aren't really close."

Hannah felt really bad for the hedgehog. It was a wonder why she felt her skin crawling every time she had heard his rough voice call out to her. She decided to move on to a different subject. She looked around and saw a recent picture of him and a white bat setting on a small table. The bat acted like she was having fun, but Shadow was all frowns. She quickly picked it up and showed it at Shadow, "Hey, this woman...was she the one I saw back at that other place?"

"Uh, yeah. Rouge. She's my girlfriend."

Hannah was then full of shock, 'He has a girlfriend? Mr. Sunshine here?'

The hedgehog shrugged, "I was kind of in distress when she dragged me to the mall to shop for...her needs. If you catch my drift."

Hannah rose an eyebrow, "I...guess." 'He isn't talking about what I think he's talking about is he?'

"But, I love her and I always will. She makes me happy. Her and my Kayla."

Hannah had then forgot about his grumpy attitude and started awwing from the inside.

"Detective Hedgehog!" A small voice had called from upstairs.

"I'm coming!" Shadow shouted back. Before he went upstairs, he turned to Hannah one last time. "I'll be back to escort you to your room."

Hannah nodded and watched as Shadow walked upstairs. Hannah found the sofa and sat down. She then began to think more about humans and animals. 'I wonder why humans and animals never got along.' The more she thought about it, the more curious she got about it.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER 3**

**A CHAOTIC MORNING**

That next morning at Shadow's house, Hannah was asleep in her bed until she heard Kayla's voice. She opened her eyes only a little, not completely.

"Hannah, are you awake?" The child called.

Hannah groaned tiredly and opened her eyes completely while she faced the child. "Oh, good morning, Kayla."

She made a wide smile, "Hi, Hannah. Detective Hedgehog told me to wake you up. We're going to leave soon."

"Leave? Where are we going?"

Kayla made a small giggle, "To work."

"Work?" She repeated blankly.

She nodded, "Yeah, at the Chaotix."

"Oh yeah that's right. Silly me. I remember now."

"Great." Kayla walked towards the door and grabbed the doorknob. She turned to Hannah, "Detective Hedgehog is downstairs making breakfast. You'd better hurry. Detective Bat loves his cooking."

Hannah then decided to ask her an out of the blue question. "So Kayla, is Shadow your father?"

She nodded, "Yeah."

"But why don't you ever call him father?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. I just don't, but at times when he makes me sad or worried I call him daddy to make him feel better and to let him know I care about him."

Hannah began to think more, until Kayla had called out to her again.

"I'll see you downstairs, Hannah."

She made a nod and watched her leave the room.

Kayla ran downstairs towards Rouge and begged her to pick her off the floor.

Rouge smiled, picked her off the floor, and held her in her arms. "You're getting spoiled you know that?"

Kayla had no idea what spoiled was, "Is that a good thing?"

She shook her head, "Not really." She set Kayla back on the floor.

Shadow turned to them, "Okay you two enough playing around. Eat your breakfast."

Rouge made a sly smile while Kayla sat at the table. "Why Shadow, I never knew you became such a housewife."

"What the hell does that mean!"

"Well, you're always busy around the house if not at the Chaotix. Cooking...cleaning..."

Shadow crossed his arms with annoyance, "Someone has to do it all and it definitely won't be you. You're the laziest creature I know."

"Oh come on I cook that one time..."

"And your last time!"

"Why?"

"You don't remember the last time I let you prepare dinner here? The next thing I knew, my kitchen became your playground! And you almost set the whole house on fire!"

Rouge looked at him and tried to play innocent, "And I got in trouble that day?"

"The hell you did!"

Rouge then seductively walked to Shadow and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was so close to him, it made their noses touch each other. "I was bad, Shadou-kun?"

"Why are you talking like that? And please not in front of Kayla she knows too much already."

"She knows?" Rouge asked blankly.

"About the whole 'I heard Detective Bat screaming like she was in pain' thing."

Rouge then remembered about what he was talking about, "Oh yeah! Our asses were pretty screwed that night."

They're conversation soon ended when Shadow saw Hannah walking down the stairs. "There you are, Hannah. Good morning."

She smiled, "Good morning, Shadow and...Rouge." She then noticed how Rouge was embracing Shadow and tried to act perfectly normal about it. "Did I interrupt something?"

Shadow looked down at Rouge and quickly removed her from his body. "Uh, no. Just sit at the table with Kayla and eat your breakfast. The faster you eat the faster this day ends."

When Hannah sat down, she noticed Rouge staring at her. She turned to Rouge in disturbance, "Uh Rouge, is something wrong?"

She shook her head, "Not really. I just noticed that the yellow bands you have holding your pigtails up looks exactly like Shadow's wrist bands."

Hannah took one of them out and stared at it comparing it to Shadow's. "Hey you're right. They do look the same."

Shadow took one of his bands off as well and held it up at Hannah's. "What do you know."

Then all of a sudden their bands had started to glow a yellow color together. Everyone gasped in surprise at what was happening.

Kayla had her mouth hung open at the sight, "Wow! Pretty light!"

Shadow and Hannah then took their bands away from each other and watched as the light faded until it showed no more. Afterwards they tried to figure out what had happened.

"What the hell?" Shadow started.

Hannah continued to stare at her band, "I don't know."

Rouge had her arms crossed, "Well...that was weird."

Kayla looked back and forth in a confused state, "What happened to the pretty light?"

Shadow placed his band back on his wrist, "Weird, I've never seen anything like it."

Hannah placed her band back in her pink hair while thinking about what just happened. 'What happened just now? Our bands glowed at the same time and had stopped glowing at the same time as well. Does that mean Shadow and I...have some kind of...connection?'

Shadow looked at the clock on his wall and noticed what time it was, "We're going to be late. Come on we gotta go."

Everyone nodded and followed Shadow out the door.


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER 4**

**TAGGING ALONG**

Later, when they all got to the Chaotix, they were greeted by Vector with a serious mood.

The crocodile crossed his arms, "We got a situation guys."

Shadow sighed, "Not another mission."

Rouge placed her hands on his shoulders, "Oh come on, Shad honey. It'll be fun."

Vector shook his head, "No fun, Rouge. This time it's serious."

"What's wrong, Vector?" Hannah asked.

"Well, Tonya just came across some kind of lab located near the city and it's rumored that, that lab has the number one ingredient to make artificial life forms."

Shadow's eyes widened, "What? They actually have formulas for that kind of use?"

He nodded, "It's best if we check it out and destroy every single thing in that lab."

Shadow had his fists clenched, "Anything to keep those things off the streets."

Hannah was completely clueless about what they were talking about. "Um, what are artificial life forms?"

"Artificial life forms", Charmy started. "Are beings kind of like us except they aren't made by other beings. They're made from machines and chemical formulas and we only know two artificial life forms. They're both kind of evil."

Rouge hated the way that Charmy had called Midnight evil. He really wasn't evil just misunderstood, but Lance on the other hand was a pure jerk not evil.

Hannah finally understood, "Oh, like they were born from thin air?"

"Exactly."

"Oh, it seems so sad. Those poor things have to suffer like that?"

Charmy nodded agreeing with her, "Yeah."

Shadow kneeled down to Kayla, "Kayla, you stay here."

Kayla's ears flopped down with disappointment.

"I'll watch her, Shadow", a purple cat said while approaching him.

Shadow got off the floor and faced the cat, "Thanks, Tonya."

Espio turned to Hannah, "Hannah, I think it's best of you to stay here as well."

"What? But I have to go with you guys."

The chameleon crossed his arms, "But Hannah, you won't even last there. It'll be like a battleground once we get there."

"Quit acting like I'm completely useless because I'm not! I can handle weaponry really well and know how a specific machine works inside and out! And to top it all off, I'm a dynamite expert!"

"You?" Espio repeated with disbelief. "You're way too young."

Hannah crossed her arms with annoyance, "I'm sixteen."

"Whoa", Vector said. "She's older than Charmy and she claims to do everything like she said."

"Should we bring her along, Vector?" Shadow asked.

He made a nod, "Sure why not, but if you get hurt or worse Hannah, it's your own damn fault."

She made a nod and watched Vector and the rest of the group walk into the garage. Afterwards she sighed deeply and followed them until she felt someone tug on her wrist. She turned and saw a kid bee smiling at her. "Charmy?"

"Don't mind them, Hannah. Vector is usually grumpy and making everybody else grumpy because they have to go on a mission almost everyday."

She made a small smile.

"Anyway, I thought it was cool that you said all that stuff and stood up to him like that. So I brought you a little present." Charmy then took out a pair of silver goggles and placed them in her hand. She looked up at her with a blush, "You...will wear these right?"

She kneeled down to him and hugged him, "Everyday."

As she was hugging him, Charmy's face got redder and redder.

She had finally let him go from her grip and started to put the goggles on top of her head. "How do they look, Charmy?"

The bee's smile got wider, "Great, Hannah! Great!"

Hannah let out a small giggle until Vector's voice was heard from the garage.

"Come on, Charmy, Hannah!"

Then they both ran into the garage to meet the others.

Later, Charmy had gotten his plane airborne in the sky with everyone in it.

Hannah was amazed with his work, "Wow Charmy, I can't believe you actually built this. It's so cool."

Charmy started to blush again, "You think it's cool?" He asked without looking back at her.

"Yeah. What did you name this anyway?"

"I call it the X-jet."

"The X-jet? How cool!"

Charmy didn't know how much longer he would last blushing. Her compliments on his work had made him incredibly happy.

Hannah took her mind off the machine and decided to talk to Shadow who was beside her. "So Shadow, am I the first human you guys have ever seen?"

He shrugged, "Kind of."

"What do you mean kind of?"

"Well, there's this group called the fourteen demons. They were humans once, but an evil demon called Dark had resurrected them from their grave which caused them to turn into violent killing machines. We faced the demons more than once, killing them one by one. Once we had our final battle with the strongest of them all, we were for sure that they would never come back again, but who knows we could be wrong. Even in their demon forms, they still looked like humans...mostly."

"Oh I see", Hannah said silently.

"But there was one demon out of them all who just wanted peace and live in a world without killing, but he ended up dying again by his older brother who tried to destroy this world. God bless his soul."

Hannah thought she had made Shadow sad and she never wanted that. "I'm so sorry, Shadow."

"Don't be." He quickly changed the subject and took out four separate packs of dynamite and showed them to Hannah. "Okay, dynamite expert. Your job in this mission is to set these four dynamite packs in each sector of the lab."

She gasped with shock, "You mean...we're going to blow that lab to pieces?"

He nodded.

"But I thought you guys were supposed to be the good guys."

"We are. We're just going to give those scientists what's coming to them."

She crossed her arms and turned away from the hedgehog in anger, "Forget it! I'm not going to get involved in your sick scheme to kill millions of lives in that lab. Sure they've been doing wrong, but they don't deserve death. Your worse than Hao himself."

Espio overheard the conversation and tried to make things better. He turned to Hannah, "Hannah, listen to me. Before you know it everybody will evacuate the building right after we show up. So there's a good chance no one will be in the lab when we place the dynamite packs."

"Really?"

The chameleon nodded.

She looked back over to Shadow and took the dynamite packs out of his hand. "I'll do it."


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER 5**

**CHAOS AT THE LAB**

When they all arrived to the lab, everyone got out of the plane and stood by Vector waiting for his plan.

"Okay everyone", Vector started. "While Shadow and Espio distract the guard robots, Hannah and Charmy will sneak in and start to place the dynamite packs. Then Rouge and I will destroy the formulas that are already made. Everyone got it?"

Hannah gulped with nervousness and her hand that was holding the dynamite started to shake. 'Why do I have a feeling that someone will still get hurt?'

Charmy saw her hand shaking and looked up at her with worry. "Hannah?" He murmured, but she didn't seem to hear him.

Vector looked over to Shadow and Espio, "Okay guys, you're up."

Shadow and Espio nodded and ran towards the entrance door.

Espio nodded over to Shadow.

Shadow gave him a nod back and held his hand out at the door, "Chaos Spear!" A yellow light appeared from his hand and hit the door making it fly into pieces, setting off the alarm as well. Then they both ran into the lab with the others following, until they ran into two guard robots.

Hannah's eyes widened at the size of the robots, "They're so big."

Espio took out his giant shuriken and looked back at the others, "Shadow and I will take care of them. You guys have to get moving."

Everyone nodded and started to split up.

Charmy grabbed Hannah's wrist, "Come on, Hannah. This way."

Hannah hesitantly followed Charmy out of the dangerous hallway.

Meanwhile, Vector and Rouge came across a steel door.

Rouge saw Vector cracking his knuckles and smirking. "You're not going to punch this door down are you?"

He looked over to her, "Of course."

"But wouldn't it be better if we just..." Before she could finish her sentence, Vector had knocked the door down. "Oh, forget it." She walked into the steel room with Vector and saw all the scientists' backs against the wall in a scared state.

"What do you want?" One asked.

Vector pointed to them, "You know very well why we came here." He looked over to Rouge. "Rouge, destroy everything in this room.

The bat nodded and started to knock everything off the tables and rip the test tubes apart.

While she was doing that, another scientist started to speak. "Why are you doing this?"

Vector crossed his arms, "You're trying to create artificial life forms and we hate those things."

"But, we're trying to create a better city with them."

"It isn't getting any better!" He shouted. "If your so called good artificial life forms get into the wrong hands, they could create utter destruction."

"How?" Another scientist asked.

"Artificial life forms are strong and brainless at the same time. If you tell one to go jump off a cliff, it would probably do it. If you tell it to kill an innocent little girl, it would probably decapitate her. Do you understand? You can never create a perfect being. It's impossible. They'll remain miserable like that forever. It's best to leave them nonexistent." He pointed to the doorway, "Now if I were you, I would gather the rest of the scientists and get out of here fast." He moved aside and let the scientists leave the room.

Rouge stood beside him, "Huh? I thought you wanted to kill those scientists?"

"I did, but...they weren't evil. They had no idea that artificial life forms could destroy so many things. Come on, lets get back to the plane."

Rouge nodded and followed him out of the room.

Meanwhile in the main hallway of the lab, many of the guard robots were on the floor damaged.

Espio looked around and faced Shadow, "Looks like we got all of them. We should get out of here."

Shadow walked with him out of the entrance and turned to him, "Espio, what you said to Hannah was a lie wasn't it?"

"Yeah and I feel terrible about it. I really do, but we had no choice. If she didn't go along with it, we couldn't carry out the mission."

He nodded, "She'll be pretty upset when this place goes up in pieces."

The chameleon sighed, "I hope she'll forgive us."

Later in another part of the lab, Charmy placed the last dynamite pack onto the wall. "There. That's the last one." He turned to Hannah, "Now all we have to do is set it off. Come on lets get out of here. I'm sure the others are waiting for us."

Hannah nodded and followed Charmy out.

Later outside of the lab, everyone was standing on a cliff that was a long distance away from the lab. From where they all were, they could hear the alarms carrying on.

Rouge crossed her arms with worry, "Where's Charmy and Hannah?"

"They'll be here", Vector said.

Then they all saw Charmy and Hannah running towards them.

Charmy saluted to Vector, "The dynamite is set, Vector."

The crocodile made a nod, "Okay Charms, take it away."

Charmy looked over to Hannah, "Hannah, you have the control. You can do it."

Hannah slowly took out the control and raised the antenna of it. She stared at the red button on the control and was trying to decide if she was really going to do this. "I...can't do it."

Shadow walked over to her and snatched the control out of her hand. "I knew you couldn't handle this job."

Hannah's eyes widened with fear, "Shadow, no!" She grabbed his arm, "Don't push that button!"

The feel of her hand gripping around his arm lit the hedgehog's eyes up in rage. He took the end of the control and slung it at her head knocking her away from him.

She fell to the ground holding her bleeding head while crying.

Everyone gasped in horror as they saw the girl on the ground wounded.

Shadow looked down at her like he didn't feel sorry for what he had done. He slowly looked away from her, "Don't ever touch me like that again, human." He then placed his finger on the red button and pushed it.

Then the lab in front of them had exploded into the air and into millions of pieces.

Shadow then dropped the control on the ground and started to walk away, until he was called back.

"Shadow!" A furious voice called out to him.

He turned and saw Vector glaring at him, "Have you lost your mind? What's wrong with you? You just hit Hannah!"

"She touched me", he coldly said.

"That gave you no right to hit her, Shadow!" Espio shouted.

Rouge helped the poor girl off the ground, "Hannah, are you okay?"

Hannah slowly turned to the destroyed lab and looked back over to Shadow in tears. "How could you? I doubt if those scientists meant any harm to us. Why did you have to act so violent against them?"

"It's my job", he simply said.

"Your...job?" Hannah was full of anger once he said such a cold excuse. "You monster! You're such an asshole!"

Shadow got furious of the girl's attitude so he walked up to her, clenched his fist and punched her in the face, knocking her back down to the ground. "Damn human! Don't you ever talk to me that way! You understand me!" He was about to kick her while she was down, but Rouge had grabbed him away from her.

"Stop it, Shadow! You're killing her damn it!"

Shadow got out of her grip and angrily started to walk away.

Everyone took their minds off him and focused on the injured Hannah.

Espio kneeled down to her and rubbed her back, "Hannah, you're going to be okay. Just rest now." He placed his hand on her bloody head and she had slowly fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER 6**

**FORGIVENESS**

Later, Hannah had slowly opened her eyes and found herself in a white room laying in a bed covered in white blankets. She slowly took her head away from her pillow with still some pain from her wound. She winced and placed her hand on her forehead where her blood had once shed. She felt bandages wrapped around her head. It was obvious that the others had treated her.

"Well, well, look who's awake." A voice said from the doorway.

Hannah looked and saw a white bat standing there giving her a friendly smile. "Rouge."

The bat walked over to her and sat on the bed with her. She lightly touched her head, "Does it still hurt?"

"A little", she answered quietly.

Rouge then gave her a sympathetic look. "Hannah, I'm so sorry about Shadow's behavior. I don't know what had gotten into him. For sure he's getting a good talking to from Vector. He had no right to hit you like that. I'm pretty pissed off at him too."

Hannah shook her head, "No, it's okay. I'm sure he didn't mean to."

Rouge was confused at what she was saying. She was supposed to be mad at him, but she wasn't. "Huh?"

"He was just doing his job and...I was in the way. I guess he had every right to hit me."

Rouge made a gasp, "Hannah, don't..." Before she could finish, a black hedgehog had came into the room. "Shadow? You had better came in here to apologize to her."

"I have." The hedgehog confronted the injured girl and started to apologize to her in a cold voice. "Hannah, what I did to you today...well I'm sorry. I was way out of line. I hope you can forgive me."

The girl made a wide smile, "I forgive you, Shadow."

"Besides if I ever did that again, Vector said he would fire me."

"What else did he say?"

He shrugged, "I load of swear words. I've never seen him so angry before. Believe me you wouldn't want to get on his bad side."

Hannah laughed a bit, "I guess no one would want to."

Rouge smiled and was glad that they were getting along again.

Meanwhile in the garage, Charmy was finally working on the machine that Hannah had requested, but he was in a pretty furious while he worked. His eyes were full of anger and sadness. 'How could he?' Charmy thought. 'How could he treat such a sweet girl like that? That's cruel. That's almost just the way animals were treated when humans and animals once lived together. I can now see why humans don't live here anymore. It's creatures like him that start trouble with the innocent.' He then felt sad for her, 'I hope she's okay.' He then felt a soft hand fall on his shoulder. He turned and faced a smiling human girl behind him. His face lit up in joy. He flew up to her and hugged her. "Hannah, you're okay! I'm so glad!"

Hannah laughed for Charmy's happiness, "Yes Charmy, I'm fine."

The bee frowned and took his body from hers and stood on the floor. "Hannah, did Shadow apologize to you yet?"

She nodded, "Of course he did he was very sorry."

The bee crossed his arms, "He'll need more than an apology to make that mark on your head disappear."

"Are you still upset with him, Charmy?"

"The hell I am! He had no right!"

"I know Charmy, but I forgave him and if I can forgive him you can."

The bee sighed, "I guess you're right."

Hannah looked at a huge machine that had a huge opening in the middle of it. "Charmy, what is that?"

Charmy spun around at the machine and smiled again. "It's your ticket home, Hannah."

Hannah's smile widened, "Really? Charmy, you got this far? This fast? At this rate you'll be finished in no time."

The bee looked down at the floor in sadness. She was right, he was finishing it too fast and if he continued in this speed, she would have to leave soon. He didn't want that. He looked up from the floor and back at her. "Yeah, but I still got a few adjustments to make from the inside and all. It won't be ready just yet."

"Well, take your time. I see no rush." She then heard a cold voice behind her.

"Hannah."

She spun around and faced Shadow. "Oh, Shadow."

Charmy gritted his teeth in anger, 'Shadow.'

"We have to go home now. It's getting late."

She nodded, "Okay." She faced Charmy one last time, "I'll see you tomorrow, Charmy."

Charmy looked away from Shadow and back at her. "Oh, I'll see you around, Hannah." He then watched as she walked away with Shadow. He continued to glare, 'You'd better not harm her again, Shadow.'

Later when Shadow and Hannah had gotten to his house, the door was already unlocked. Shadow opened the door and saw Tonya sitting at the kitchen table drinking a glass of warm milk while Kayla was watching TV. Shadow shut the door and gave Tonya a grimaced look. "You're...doing it again."

Tonya took her mouth from the glass and faced Shadow. "Doing what?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You're drinking up all of the milk!"

"For your information Shadow, I only had three glasses of milk."

"Yeah! I only bought a quart! That's half of the milk gone already."

"Yeah, but you know me."

He placed his hands on his hips, "What's next? Pretty kitty want some string?"

"Oh shut up, Shadow!" She placed the empty glass down on the table and walked towards the door.

"Thanks for taking Kayla home for me. What do I owe you?"

The cat gave him a teasing smile, "A date."

He rose an eyebrow, "What?"

The cat bursted out laughing, "Just kidding." She placed her hand on the doorknob and turned it, opening the door. "Good night, Shadow." She then walked out of the door leaving.

Afterwards, Shadow placed his hand on his forehead. "What am I going to do with her?"

Hannah and Kayla was sitting on the sofa watching TV until it was all of a sudden shut off. They both turned around and saw Shadow looking down at them.

"Oka you two, I think it's time for bed."

Kayla sighed, "Aw, daddy." Before she went upstairs, she saw the bandages wrapped around Hannah's head. "Hannah, what happened to your head?"

Hannah touched the bandages on her head and looked over to Shadow who had his back turned to her. It was obvious he didn't want to tell Kayla the story. Hannah made a sigh, "I...fell and bumped my head. No big deal."

"Oh, that must've hurt. I hope you get better soon, Hannah. Good night." She then walked upstairs and into her room.

Hannah made a slight smile and felt a hand touch her shoulder. She turned and faced Shadow.

"You didn't tell her?"

"I didn't want to. If I did, then she would've gotten upset with you. I didn't want that to happen. You seem like a great father to her. She looks up to you and all."

He nodded, "Yeah. Thank you, Hannah. I'll see you in the morning."

She nodded, "Good night, Shadow."

After when Shadow left, Hannah sat down on the sofa and started to relax not knowing she was being watched from the living room window.

Outside, a brown chipmunk took his head away from the window and smiled. "A human? A real live human? I can't wait to tell the boss." He then quickly ran out of sight before anyone spotted him.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER 7**

**TAKEN**

Later at an old abandoned house, a grey fox was stretched out on a torn sofa sleeping until a green and black squirrel had woken him up.

She shook the fox a bit to wake him, "Lance", she called in a low voice.

The fox had opened his blue eyes slowly and turned to the squirrel with annoyance. "Zena? What the hell do you want? I'm tired. If you want to sleep here then you're out of luck. The top dog always gets first dibs."

She shook her head, "No Lance, it's not that. It's...it's Appex."

He rose an eyebrow, "Appex?"

She made a nod, "I'm worried about him. Every night he's in his room alone with his door shut. It's like he wants to be alone."

"Then leave him alone. You know how that porcupine gets. Just keep out of his way and you won't get hurt." He gave her a serious look, "Remember last time?"

She looked down to the floor and held her wrist with her hand. She remembered his feel and it was full of pain and suffering. She never wanted that to happen again.

"I thought so."

They were then interrupted when a brown chipmunk came into the room panting.

"Boss! Boss!" He shouted while he was exhausted from running.

Lance shushed and walked over to him. "Quiet moron. You might wake Appex."

He continued, "But boss, I just found out some shocking news."

All of a sudden Lance seemed interested. "What is it, Maxcell?"

"Did something happen?" Zena asked.

"Shadow has a real human girl living with him."

Lance and Zena couldn't believe what he just said.

"What?" Lance said with disbelief. "The only real human we knew was that fat guy, Eggman and he packed his bags and moved to Earth like the rest of those filthy humans."

"But I'm not lying! I saw her!"

Zena crossed her arms and turned to Lance, "I don't know. You could be overreacting. Maybe it was one of those demons?"

The fox shook his head, "No, those guys are long gone. The kid could be right you know."

"I think it's a load of bullshit."

"I'll check it out", a voice said near the stairs.

They all looked over and saw a red porcupine leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his yellow eyes glaring at the group.

Zena smiled warmly with a slight blush, "Appex, you're awake? It was all Maxcell's fault I swear! He has the biggest mouth!"

The chipmunk gave Zena an angry look, "I did not!"

The porcupine grew weary of their argument. He gritted his teeth, "Shut up both of you or I'll kill you."

Zena and Maxcell had then stopped arguing and had their attention on the dead serious porcupine.

Lance placed his hands on his hips. "I told you not to wake him up", he whispered.

Appex took his back away from the wall and faced Lance. "I'll look for the girl then bring her here. Afterwards you can do what you like with her."

The fox made a nod, "Sounds like a plan."

They then watched Appex walk out the door and slammed it shut on his way out.

Everyone sighed with relief afterwards.

Maxcell sat on the sofa, "Man, I hate it when he gets like that."

"Heh, you wait. If there's no human with Shadow, you're the dead guy", Lance had said.

Maxcell's eyes were filled with fear and had hoped that the human girl was still with Shadow.

Later at Shadow's house, Hannah was sitting at the kitchen table with her head down and a glass of cold water next to her. She took her head away from the table when she heard footsteps approach her. She quickly turned and saw a black hedgehog stare at her. "Shadow?"

"Hannah? What are you doing down here? You should be in bed resting. And where's your bandages? You'll bleed to death won't you?"

"I took them off. I couldn't sleep. I was just thinking about my grandfather."

Shadow sat down with her, "You miss your family don't you?"

She nodded.

"Don't worry. Charmy will finish that machine and you'll be home in no time."

She smiled, "Thank you, Shadow. I don't know where I'd be if I had never met you guys."

"In a harsh place like this, I wouldn't want to know." He then decided to change the subject when he saw the red bruise still visible on her head. "Hannah, I'm sorry again."

Hannah touched her bruise and it had still hurt her a bit so she quickly took her hand away. "It's fine, Shadow. I'm sure you didn't mean to." She then talked about something else quickly. "So you seem to take care of Kayla fairly well. It must be hard being a single parent."

He made a small smile, "Most of the time I'm alone with her, but when it comes to something I can't handle by myself, I have Rouge there for me."

"So Rouge is her mother?"

"I never said she was."

"Oh, so you had another woman in your life before?"

He shook his head, "I was never married to a woman in my life."

Hannah was now confused, "What? Then who was her mother?"

He sighed, "A prostitute."

Hannah gasped, "Shadow! You're so filthy!"

"What? No! No! I didn't!" He took a deep breath. "Okay, just let me explain. Her father and a hooker...well...you know and Kayla came along so she left Kayla in the care of her father, but her father was murdered. So I had watched after Kayla. We got attached to each other so I decided to adopt her."

Hannah was now no longer confused, "Oh, I see. Poor Kayla. Well, she's really lucky to have someone like you to watch over her. You're the perfect parent for her."

"Hannah, I'm not perfect."

"Well, I don't see nothing wrong with your relationship with her."

"...Hannah, I drink and...a lot."

Hannah was now understanding what he was saying. "You drink?" She repeated.

He nodded, "And when I get drunk, Kayla's usually my number one victim. There were times when I hit her the same way I had hit you."

Hannah's eyes widened with shock and disappointment, "You..."

"I don't know why I do that I just...", his last words trailed off when he saw the look of hatred in the girl's blue eyes. Shadow watched Hannah clench her fists tightly on the table and looked back at her.

"How could you, Shadow? You actually abuse her like that? And let me guess you told no one about it?"

He shook his head, "No and afterwards she wouldn't tell anyone neither she would just make up an excuse to cover it up."

She angrily glared at Shadow. "Shadow, you're a cruel father and person! I can't stand to see you in my sight. I won't stand here and watch while you torture your own child." She stood from her chair, "I'm telling Rouge all about it and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" She watched as Shadow got up from the table as well and approach her. She stood there and watched him grab her wrist. She looked into his blood red eyes with anger and fear.

"No", he said. "You won't."

"I will."

After hearing her comment, he took his fist and punched her deep in her stomach. Then his yellow bands had started to glow.

Hannah's bands had glowed as well, but they were too caught up in the moment to notice.

He saw her blood spill out of her mouth while she screaming out in agony. He had removed his fist from her stomach and let her drop to the floor. The glowing from his bands had stopped at the same time Hannah's did. He stared at her shaking body with blood dripping out of her mouth and onto the floor. Just as he was about to leave her, he heard sobbing coming from the entrance of the kitchen. He looked and saw the young Kayla on the floor sobbing. "Kayla?"

She looked up at him with her tears dripping from her cheeks. "Daddy, why? Why did you hurt Hannah?"

Before he could say anything, Kayla had ran over to Hannah's body. She kneeled down on the floor and studied her face full of anguish. More tears started to swell in her eyes. "Hannah?" She called. "Are you okay? Please say something." She then saw Hannah's mouth move a bit. She was trying to talk.

"Kayla?" She answered in a hoarse voice.

"Hannah!" She shouted with a sniffle.

"Your father and I had a disagreement that's all. You don't have to worry about me. I'll be all right."

Shadow slowly turned his back and started to walk back upstairs and into his room.

Then Hannah's eyes had felt heavy. She couldn't keep them open. She wanted to close them, but before she could she heard glass fall onto the floor. Her eyes had widely opened when she was startled by the falling glass and Kayla's screams. 'What's going on?' She thought.

Upstairs, Shadow was sitting on his bed and had heard the glass breaking and Kayla and Hannah's screams as well. "What the hell was that?" He quickly stood from the bed and ran downstairs. By the time he had made it into the kitchen, he saw nothing except for Hannah's remaining blood that she had spat out all over the floor. He checked around the area and saw his living room window broken. It had looked like someone had jumped through it. He looked down on the floor and saw a lot of broken glass, but he saw something else that caught his eye. He bent down and carefully picked it off the floor. He held it in his hand and studied it. It looked like red fur. A very sharp piece of fur. Almost like a quill. He gritted his teeth in anger. "He took them."

**N/A: I just signed onto Deviantart and posted some art up based on what my characters look like and scenes from my fics. I don't have much now, but hopefully I'll post more up soon. You can find the URL address on my profile. Check it out! Oh, and R&R please!**


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER 8**

**FINDING HELP**

Later at the old abandoned house, the Street Punks were gathered in a dark room with little light staring at the hurt human girl.

Lance frowned and turned to Appex, "Hey! I told you to kidnap her not try to kill her while you were at it!"

The porcupine corrected him in a calm manner. "She was like this when I found her."

"Then what happened to her?" Zena asked.

As everyone tried to figure out what had happened, they had heard yelling coming from behind them.

Lance sighed and turned to Zena, "Zena, please shut the kid up."

Zena turned to the brown squirrel child tied to a metal pipe with rope around her.

She struggled to get free but it seemed that she wasn't getting far.

Zena looked back at the fox, "I don't know, Lance. Look at her. She's just a child and..."

Lance turned his back to her not wanting to hear the rest of what she had to say. "Appex", he simply said.

The red porcupine walked up to Zena before he confronted the child. "This is why, Zena."

The green and black squirrel looked up at him with sadness even though she couldn't understand what he was saying. She just knew it would be bad. She watched as he pointed his finger near her nose.

"The Street Punks don't need someone like you and Maxcell." His finger touched her nose. "You're too soft."

Zena felt his finger pushing against her nose and it had started to hurt more and more as he pushed on it. She quickly backed away from him and held her nose. "Appex, please stop!"

The porcupine quickly turned away from her and walked towards the child.

Kayla had stopped moving when the porcupine staring in her eyes. She had done the same and she was scared to death. Looking into his eyes was like watching someone killing someone else for their own pleasure. She hesitantly spoke, "You're not a bad person are you, mister?"

The porcupine just continued to glare at her. His furious eyes did all the talking.

"Are you going to hurt me?" She asked frightfully.

He didn't hesitate to answer. "Depends, child. If you tend to irk my boss and especially me, you just may die. So if I were you, I'd keep quiet."

Tears started to swell in her eyes, "But what are you going to do with Hannah?" She asked softly.

"None of your concern, child."

"My name is Kayla you bad, bad man."

He gritted his teeth in uprising anger. He took his hand and set it near Kayla's head. "You brat! How dare you speak to me that way. I shall kill you right where you stand."

Tears started to run down her cheeks. "No! Don't do that! Please!" She looked into his eyes and noticed that the pupils in his eyes had gotten smaller. "Please!" She begged.

"Leave her alone you filthy animal!" A strong female voice shouted out.

Everyone gasped and looked over to the human girl barely standing by holding her sides.

"It's the human", Maxcell had said.

Zena's eyes had widened in horror. 'She said that? To him? This isn't good. Appex won't hold back when he says he'll kill someone.' She then saw Appex slowly walking over to the girl. "Appex", she wheezed.

Lance just stood there with his arms crossed. He knew it would be no use to stop Appex when he got like this so he just let him go like he didn't care. 'This should be interesting', he thought.

Appex walked up to the girl and pushed her to the wall forcefully.

Hannah yelled because of her searing injuries from Shadow.

"It doesn't feel good does it? The pain hurts and burns. Pain is like the definition of torture itself." He placed his hand around her neck and his grip had gotten tighter each second. "Now would you mind repeating what you just said."

Meanwhile, Espio slowly walked downstairs trying to get to the door with multiple knocks being heard from the outside. "I'm coming", he moaned. When he got to the door, he placed his hand on the doorknob. "Doesn't this guy know what time it is? He'd better have a good reason for waking me up at two in the morning." He turned the knob and opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw the black hedgehog standing in front of him. He looked like an emotional wreak. Something must've went wrong. "Shadow? What is it?"

"Espio...I need your help. Hannah and Kayla are gone. Appex took them and I don't think I can rescue them all by myself."

"Why the hell not? You're the ultimate-" Then his wrist was grabbed by him.

"Espio!" He shouted.

"All right! All right!" He took his hand away from his. "Just give me a minute and we'll find them."

The hedgehog made a nod, but he was still worried about the two. Who knew what the Street Punks were doing to them.

Back at the old abandoned house, Hannah placed her hands on Appex's, trying to pull him away from her but it was no use. He was just too strong.

The porcupine growled. "Well? What are you waiting for? Repeat it. In front of me. Now."

Hannah was gasping for air and didn't know how much longer she would last.

Kayla started to scream and cry, "No! Hannah! Leave her alone!" No matter how much she screamed and cried, it never helped.

Hannah then noticed his grip easing up on her. She looked down at him.

He sighed, "I grow weary of your pitiful cries." He then threw her body across the room.

Hannah fell onto the dusty floor with tears running down her face as she started to cough up more of her blood.

Appex turned his back to her and faced the rest of the group.

"You didn't have to do that to her, Appex. She's only a child after all." Maxcell had said.

"Maxcell, shut up", he said.

The chipmunk gulped and decided not to talk anymore.

"I've never..."

Appex turned to the girl and saw her wiping blood from her mouth with her wrist.

"I've never seen someone that acted so cruel in my entire life. You truly are what you say you are. A filthy Street Punk."

His pupils had gotten smaller again and his fur was standing erect from his body. He started to walk towards her. "You'll pay for every word that slipped from your mouth, human." Just as he was about to kill her, the door was flung wide open with Espio and Shadow standing at the doorway.

Kayla sniffed with a smile when she saw her father, "Daddy!"

Shadow immediately looked over to Appex confronting the weak Hannah with his quills sharpened. "Keep your hands off her."


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER 9**

**THE DASTARDLY BATTLE**

Appex stared at Shadow and gave him a cold look. "Shadow", he growled.

Lance sighed and looked at the two with disgust, "Great and just when it was about to get to the good part."

Espio gritted his teeth, "Lance, what were you going to do with her?"

"You mean the human? Well, we were gonna sell her for profit."

Espio and Shadow gasped.

"I mean it's pretty rare when a real human shows up around here. Anyone would pay good money to see such a rare sight. But she had to screw with Appex so she almost died until you two losers showed up."

Espio clenched his fists, "You bastard! Hannah's not some circus freak you can make money off of! She's a real being that has feelings like every single one of us in this room."

The fox placed his hands on his hips and smirked at the chameleon evilly. "So? What are you gonna do about it?" Then something shiny and sharp looking stabbed him in his shoulder attaching him to the wall. He yelled and after hearing some of his blood drip onto the floor, he looked at his injured shoulder and saw a small shuriken stabbed deeply into his arm. He hesitantly touched the shuriken and painfully pulled it out of his shoulder with some blood scattering across the floor. He held it in his hand and slowly looked up at the chameleon with an angry look.

Espio wasn't threatened at all by his look filled with rage. "You deserved it, jerk."

The fox made a twisted smile, "You love to play don't you, Chameleon?" He threw the shuriken on the floor near Espio's foot. "Well, I'm gonna play twice as dirty."

Espio knew what was coming. He quickly turned to Shadow. "Shadow, I'll distract Lance while you help Kayla and Hannah."

The hedgehog nodded, "Be careful, Espio." He went his separate way while Espio ran towards the grey fox.

Espio took out his huge shuriken while he was running towards Lance. "You're gonna get it now you big fake!" He swung the shuriken at him, but missed because the fox had dodged it by jumping into the air.

He kicked the shuriken out of Espio's hands and kicked him down to the floor.

While Shadow was untiing Kayla, the shuriken had struck the pipe that was above Kayla's head.

The child let out a cry of fright, "Daddy, hurry!"

"Kayla, it'll be all right. Just try to calm down for me okay." He took out a small pocket knife and cut through the rope freeing her.

Kayla instantly embraced Shadow with tears, "Daddy!"

He patted her back and held her tightly in his arms, "It's okay. You're safe now." He took her away from his arms. "We have to get Hannah now." He turned and saw Hannah lying on the floor in the far corner of the room. She was barely moving it seemed. He started to approach her, "Hannah!" Before he could get any closer, a red porcupine confronted him with both of his fists clenched.

The porcupine gritted his teeth, "That filthy human is mine."

Shadow stood in a fighting stance, "I won't stand by and let you kill her."

Kayla knew there was going to be a fight so she stood away from them.

"Very well then you shall die with her."

Shadow watched him place his goggles over his eyes and saw his quills becoming erect.

He then raised his hand at the hedgehog with his quills pointed at him.

Shadow's eyes widened and quickly moved out of the way.

Kayla hid behind the sofa, not wanting to get hurt by Appex's deadly quills.

Maxcell and Zena were leaning against the wall trying to avoid the fights that were taking place.

Zena sighed, "Man, this is no fun. Lance and Appex always get to fight against those losers."

"I'm sure we can be helpful too." He then saw Kayla hiding behind the sofa and got a great idea. He gently tapped Zena's arm.

"What do you want?"

He pointed to the child, "Lets grab her and then Lance will be proud of us."

She smiled at him, "I like the way you think Maxcell."

Espio was once again knocked to the floor by Lance. He saw the fox approach him with an evil smirk.

"Looks like you're out of tricks, Chameleon."

Before Lance could approach him any closer, Espio took out a kunai from his coat pocket and threw it towards Lance's chest.

He had tried to catch it before the weapon had struck him, but it was too late. The kunai was stabbed into Lance's chest with his hand holding the end of it. Lance stood there with his eyes wide open while he felt his blood travel around his hand.

Espio decided it was a great time to get back at him. He took his foot and tripped him on the floor. Before Lance even tried to get up, Espio took out six more kunai and stabbed them all into his body. He watched as Lance could barely move. One kunai was stabbed into his neck.

Blood had risen from his mouth and dripped onto the floor. He was still breathing and his eyes were still open, but it looked like he was on the verge of dying.

Espio thought he wouldn't be a problem anymore so he decided to help out Shadow. He ran towards Shadow and Appex, "Shadow!" He called. He was then knocked to the floor with Shadow's injured body on top of him. He gently took the hedgehog's body away from his. "Shadow, are you okay?"

The ebony hedgehog made a nod, "He was too strong for me."

Espio looked away from Shadow and looked up at Appex with a glare. "We'll see about that." He looked over to the metal pipe and took his shuriken from it. He held it in his hands and threw it at Appex.

Appex just stood there and surprisingly caught the weapon and threw it back at him.

Espio quickly dodged it and watched the shuriken hit the wall. His eyes widened with shock, "Christ, he is kinda strong isn't he?"

Shadow slowly stood from the floor and glared at the porcupine. "That's it, Appex!"

The porcupine watched as Shadow's hands had a yellow aura of energy around them.

Shadow raised his hands at Appex, "See if you can handle this. Chaos Spear!"

Appex stood there and watched the yellow light strike him. His eyes widened with pain.

Shadow watched as he slowly fell to the floor while he was holding his bloody sides. "Don't worry. You'll live...knowing you anyway."

Espio ran towards the injured Hannah, picked her up, and held her in his arms. "Hannah?" He called.

The girl's blue eyes were slightly open and she could barely move her body. "E-Espio?"

"Don't worry you're safe with us." He ran over to Shadow, "Shadow, she's hurt badly. She needs to go to the hospital right now."

Shadow looked at the girl's bloody mouth. He knew Appex made a few bruises on her, but he himself made the major ones. He didn't dare speak of what he had did to her. He looked away from her and back at Espio. "Yeah, you're right. I just have to get Kayla first." He looked around the room, "Kayla?" He had called.

"Daddy!" She screamed.

Shadow and Espio quickly turned and saw Kayla being held by Zena.

Zena smirked at Shadow, "Surrender that human and you'll get your daughter back."

Shadow gave Zena a cold look, "Do you really want to piss me off more than ever? Put her down or die."

Judging by his eyes, Maxcell could tell Shadow was very serious. He placed his hands on Zena's and forced her to let go of the child.

Kayla then ran over to Shadow and hugged him.

Zena glared over to the chipmunk, "Maxcell, what's your problem?"

"I just realized taking his daughter wouldn't be such a good idea."

The squirrel crossed her arms, "Appex was right. You are a wimp." She then watched Shadow and Espio run out of the house with Hannah in their possession. 'Lance won't be happy about this.' "Oh no! Lance!" She turned and saw the grey fox getting off the floor with the seven kunai still stabbed into his flesh. 'Wow Lance can still move? After all that?' She watched him take a kunai from his neck and threw it on the floor. Afterwards he walked past her. "Uh Lance, do you need any help?"

"No", he said coldly.

Zena and Maxcell watched as he walked over to Appex who was still laying on the floor bleeding.

The fox kneeled down to him, "You should get Zena to bandage your wounds so you won't bleed to death."

The porcupine then faced in another direction. He was obviously not in the mood.

**N/A: I made Appex way too moody. XD**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER 10**

**LITTLE FAITH**

Hannah's eyes slowly opened and she soon found herself in a soft comfortable white bed. She looked around the white room a bit until she saw some kind of bloody tools setting on a small table beside her. Her eyes widened at the sight and was now full of panic. 'What is this place?' She thought. She then felt a warm hand touch hers. She turned and saw a black hedgehog standing next to her. "Shadow? Wh-where am I?"

He took his hand from hers, "You're in the hospital."

"The hospital? But what about all those strange people who kidnaped me?"

"Taken care of. Don't worry, you're safe now."

She placed her hands on her stomach lightly, "What about my wounds?"

"Appex only threw you around. Nothing major."

"No, I mean the ones you made. When you hit me."

His eyes widened with panic as she asked. He looked away from her face and focused on her stomach. "Hannah..." he said in a broken voice. "I'm sorry. I really am."

"What? What happened to me, Shadow? Tell me."

He tightly clenched both of fists. He was stressed and upset. "The doctor said that the impact was so bad, it affected your uterus. So bad, you will never have children. Never." He then saw her tears hitting her pillow. "Hannah, I'm so sorry. It's okay if you hate me. It was all my fault."

She shook her head slightly, "No Shadow, I could never hate you. I shouldn't have made you upset. Then none of this would never had happened. I have an idea. Lets just pretend that this never happened okay?"

"What? Hannah, I..."

"It's fine really. Besides I like you a lot, Shadow. I want us to be friends not enemies."

Shadow felt tears swelling in his eyes but he tried to hold them back. "For a human, you're really strong."

She made a small smile at him.

Then they both heard the door open slowly. They turned and saw the rest of the group appear in the room. Judging by their faces, they all looked worried especially Charmy.

The bee flew up to her trying to put on a small smile to comfort her. "Hannah, are you all right? I heard that the Street Punks tried to hurt you."

"Yeah, but I'm fine now. Thanks for your concern, Charmy."

Shadow stood away from Hannah and stood next to Rouge.

Rouge noticed him looking a bit depressed. "I know you must be shocked about Hannah's inability to have children. We all are. Appex did this to her remember? So there's no reason to blame yourself for that. It couldn't be helped."

"You just don't understand."

Rouge then watched Shadow leave out of the room. She was confused about Shadow's behavior. Wondering why he was blaming all of this on himself. She then decided to quickly follow him while the others were still comforting Hannah.

Outside of the hospital, Rouge found Shadow leaning against the building facing in another direction. She saw him shaking a bit so she figured he was either cold or crying. She slowly walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. "Shadow?" Even though she called his name, he still didn't face her. She then wrapped her arms around him and embraced him in a hug from behind. "Shadow, is there something you would like to tell me? Whatever it is, I won't tell anyone I swear. I'm always there for you Shad, you know that." She placed her hand on his cheek and made him face her.

Once he faced her, his face was wet and his eyes were full of tears. He looked so full of sadness. "Rouge", he said in a low voice. "Can you do me a favor?"

She made a nod, "Sure, what is it?"

"Can Hannah stay with you?"

"Why?"

He made a sniffle, "I just want you to take care of her for me. I don't think I can handle her. I just can't." His memories had traveled back to when he started to hit Hannah before. The more he thought about it the more he felt like crying again. "Please, Rouge! You must do this!" He was then pulled into a hug with his face setting on her chest.

"Don't worry", she said. "I will."


	11. Chapter 11

**CHAPTER 11**

**HANNAH GETS KIDNAPED**

The next day, Hannah was sitting at the kitchen table at Rouge's house waiting for her to come downstairs. 'Why am I here?' She thought. 'Did Shadow have some something to do with this?' She then heard footsteps approaching from behind her. She turned her head and saw Rouge giving her a friendly smile.

"Good morning, Hannah", she spoke.

"Oh good morning, Rouge", she said in a melancholy tone.

Rouge noticed the sadness within her voice. "Hannah, what's wrong? You don't seem like yourself?"

"Well...Rouge, why am I here? Did Shadow have something to do with this?"

"He did. He told me to keep you in my care now, but he never told me the reason why."

"Oh." She thought about the reason why and it was just for her safety. Just to get her away from him.

Rouge continued as she placed her hand on her shoulder, "But I'm sure he doesn't hate you. I can tell that all he wants to do is to protect you at all costs." She sighed, "I guess he's still a little upset about what Appex did to you, but..."

"No, it's okay. It really doesn't matter anymore", she quickly said.

"Hannah", she said in a practically speechless tone.

"I'm fine. There's nothing to worry about."

Rouge remained silent for a few seconds until she finally answered. "All right, Hannah. If you say so."

Later at the Chaotix, Charmy was in the garage working on the machine that would send Hannah home. 'I'm almost done', he thought. 'What was I thinking? Working on this slowly just so she could stay longer. She's getting hurt more and more. I'd better finish this and fast.'

"Hey Charmy!" A voice shouted from the doorway.

The bee quickly dropped his screwdriver and turned. It wasn't Hannah like he predicted. Instead it was Espio. "Espio, what do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

He chuckled a bit, "The only time you're busy I see."

"Very funny, Espio", he said sarcastically.

"Well if you're too busy like you said, I guess you don't want to see this lovely lady." When Espio had left the room, Hannah appeared.

"Hi, Charmy. Um, I'm sorry if I disturbed you. Do you want me to come back later?"

Charmy quickly grabbed her wrist before she had started to walk away. "No! Don't leave! I'm...not that busy."

"Okay, if you say so."

He then led her over to the machine, "Look Hannah, it's almost done. Now you'll be home in no time.

She made a wide smile, "That's great news, Charmy. Now I can hopefully see my grandfather again."

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Of course once I return back to my world, I will never forget about you Charmy. None of you. You all helped me and for that I am thankful."

"Aw, it was nothing."

Then they both heard yelling coming from the outside.

Hannah quickly turned with panic, "What was that?"

The bee shook his head, "I don't know." He took out a dagger, "Stay back." He slowly cracked the door open and looked. He then saw a black ninja like robot confronting the group. 'That robot looks like one of Hao's. I was starting to wonder when he would act again.' He quietly closed the door and turned to Hannah. "I have to get you to safety now."

"Wha? Why? What's going on out there?" She asked confused.

"No time to explain."

"Charmy!" She then saw a black hedgehog being thrown into the room. "Shadow!" She shouted.

He looked up at her, "Hannah, you have to get out of here right now."

Charmy grabbed her wrist, "I'm on it, Shadow."

She then jerked away from his grip, "No! I won't leave you, Shadow!"

"Hannah, please listen to me", he begged.

Soon enough the robot had came into the room eyeing the human. It held out its robotic hand, "Come with me, human", it demanded.

"Or what?" She asked as a refusal.

The robot then placed its foot on Shadow and held a kunai under his neck, "Or he dies."

Hannah was scared and didn't know what to do. She looked down at Shadow.

Shadow looked back at her, "Don't do it, Hannah. I beg of you."

Hannah thought it over for the longest time. Deciding what was best. Helping out Shadow or keeping herself safe. She then slowly stepped forward. "Fine, I'll go. Just don't hurt him."

Charmy's eyes widened with shock, "Hannah, no!"

"I have to, Charmy. I have to keep Shadow safe."

"Hannah!" Shadow shouted as the robot took its foot off his back and the kunai away from his neck. He watched in horror as the robot grabbed her wrist and picked her up in its arms. It then ran out the building using incredible speed.

The rest of the group came into the room seeing Hannah gone and Shadow laying on the floor barely conscious.

"Shadow!" Tonya shouted as she helped him off the floor. "Are you okay?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine, but Hannah...that robot took her."

Charmy looked down to the floor in sadness, 'I fell so useless. I didn't do anything.'

"Don't worry, Shadow", Vector said. "We'll all get her back."

The hedgehog shook his head, "No, Vector. I'm going to get her. Alone. This is all my fault. Everything. I'm going to find her and bring her back. Even if costs me my own life." He then ran out the door using his great speed.

Rouge sighed in a sad mood, "Good luck, Shadow", she murmured.

**N/A: It's been a while with these chapters huh?**


	12. Chapter 12

**CHAPTER 12**

**THE CONNECTING LIGHT**

The faster Shadow had ran, the faster the clear morning sky turned dark and grey. He had a bad feeling something bad was going to happen. He stared at the darkened sky with concern, "I feel an omen." 'I just hope that Hannah is okay.' He picked up his speed and hurried to catch up to the robot.

Meanwhile, Hannah struggled to get out of the robot's grip, but it was not easing its grip on her. She looked up at the robot, "What do you want with me?" She asked in a frightened voice.

The robot did not answer and continued to carry her towards an unknown huge fortress.

Hannah looked away from the robot and focused on the fortress. 'Why does that somehow look familiar?' She thought.

The robot then looked behind itself and saw a black hedgehog approaching in a great deal of speed.

Hannah looked as well and smiled, "Shadow!" She shouted happily.

The robot then took out some kind of gun that shot out a purple beam. The beam had came towards Shadow, but fortunate for him he used Chaos Control to dodge it.

The robot was confused about where he was and didn't have any time to stop and look around because it was suddenly attacked in the leg. It then fell on the dusty ground along with dropping the captured Hannah.

Hannah fell to the ground with little injuries.

As the robot tried to get to Hannah, it was then attacked again in its other leg. It now couldn't get up.

Hannah watched as Shadow reappeared and used another Chaos Spear and this time, he struck it at his head.

The robot was now not operational anymore.

Hannah made a friendly smile towards the hedgehog, "Shadow, you came to save me."

He began to walk up to her, "I had to, Hannah. I couldn't bear to lose you."

Tears full of happiness started to appear in her eyes. "...Oh, Shadow..."

All of a sudden a giant robotic claw appeared and took her off the ground.

"Hannah!"

She struggled to get out of its grip, but she was too weak. "Shadow!" She screamed.

"Don't move. I'm coming to get you." Before he could move, he saw a blue wolf standing on the top of the fortress giving him an angry glare. "What the?"

The blue wolf clenched both of his fists, "So Shadow, we meet once again."

The ebony hedgehog gritted his teeth, "Hao, what the hell do you want this time?"

"You know exactly the reason why I'm here. You blew up my entire base and for that I wanted revenge. So in order to lead you to me, I took someone dear to you." He laughed a bit, "But what am I saying? You hate her don't you? Why bother saving her when you don't even like her?"

"You're such a bastard! You don't know anything about us!"

He smirked, "I know quite much actually and from what I've seen..."

"Seen? You haven't seen anything!"

"Well, with my mini spy cams I placed everywhere, I saw just about everything."

Shadow let out a growl that could be heard from where Hao was standing. "You bastard!"

"Temper. Temper, Shadow", he said in a sly voice while he was waving his finger around.

"Shut up before I break that finger off!"

"Just face it, Shadow. You don't care for this human. She means nothing to you. Just look back at all the trouble she caused you. Don't you just want her dead?"

Hannah's eyes were full of tears as she looked down at Shadow. She had hoped that Shadow wouldn't agree with him. If he did, she wouldn't know what to do.

Shadow looked up at the wolf in anger, "How dare you compare me to her like that. Hannah means to me a lot more than that. I don't need you saying shit like that. You're lower than scum itself, Hao."

The wolf crossed his arms and frowned, "How dare you. I will kill this girl in front of your very eyes." He looked over to Hannah and made an evil smile. "Showtime."

Hannah had no clue what was going on, but she soon found out when the robotic hand had tightened its grip around her. Squeezing her harder and harder each second she had yelled out in pain. "Shadow!" She screamed.

"Hannah!" He was about to save her, but Hao had spoke to him.

"What is it about this human that makes you just want to save her? Her life to you is meaningless."

"Her life...", he growled. "Is way more valuable than yours will ever be. Because unlike you, she has a powerful heart and soul. She always stays strong when it comes to caring for others. This is why I must save her because she...is apart of me!"

Hao's eyes widened with confusion, "What?"

Shadow then ran up the robot, running towards the suffering human. "I'm coming, Hannah!"

Hannah was still suffering as the robot squeezed her harder, making her cough up her own blood. She thought she was going to die, but she had then heard a familiar voice coming towards her. She looked up and saw Shadow jumping up towards her with his hand out. "Shadow!" She held out her hand to him as well until he finally touched hers. "You came!" She shouted with tears.

"I could never just forget about you, Hannah. You mean a lot to me."

Her smile grew wide even through her pain.

Then Shadow's bracelets and Hannah's hair bands had glowed and with both of them together, they glowed brighter and brighter.

The light was so bright, Hao didn't know what was going on anymore. He couldn't see anything except for the blinding yellow light. "What the hell is going on? Where's that light coming from?" When the light had dimmed a bit, Hao saw a glowing yellow hedgehog holding an injured human girl in his arms. "Is that...Shadow?" He looked harder and saw the hedgehog looking back at him with a serious mood. "It is Shadow and he seems pretty pissed." He then took out a small control panel with a black button that stood out with the red buttons. "See how you like this." He pushed the button and then a huge purple laser beam had appeared from the fortress and charged at Shadow.

The hedgehog looked down at the human resting in his arms with her eyes barely opened.

"Shadow..." She whispered in a soft voice. She placed her hand on his cheek and smiled.

"I'll protect you, Hannah. I swear it." He then faced the beam that was coming at him.

Hao watched as the beam made a direct hit at the hedgehog. He made a wide smile, "Yes", he said with excitement. "He's done for." He looked closely after the blast cleared and saw Shadow still floating there with the yellow aura of energy still flowing around his body. "What! Impossible!"

Shadow glared at the wolf, "Time to destroy this thing for good. Chaos Blast!" Then a huge yellow light appeared from his body and had charged at the fortress, destroying the huge base with one blast.

"No!" Hao shouted with anger. "Not again! You'll pay dearly for this, Shadow! What you're doing with that human is a terrible mistake. You will receive severe consequences. I swear it!"

Shadow and the barely conscious Hannah watched as Hao's new base collapsed to the ground in front of their very eyes.

Shadow looked down at Hannah with her eyes closed but with a small smile still appearing on her lips "Time to go home", he whispered.

**A/N: One more chapter to go and this fic is done. Yes! Oh and if you guys want I finally posted art of Tonya, Nails, and Ker on my DA profile. The address is on my profile.**


	13. Chapter 13

**CHAPTER 13**

**GOODBYE**

The next day, Hannah was sitting in a field full of white flowers. She picked one of the flowers from the ground and sniffed it along with the cooling breeze that filled the warm air. "This one smells so pure...and full of life." She stood from the ground while she was still holding the flower in her hand. "This is perfect."

"Hannah", a voice called across from her.

She spun around and turned to a black hedgehog that made a small smile at her. She looked at the flower in her hand and walked over to the hedgehog. She held the flower up at him, "I picked the purest of them all for you, Shadow."

He took the flower and smiled at the human, "Thank you."

Afterwards Hannah had made a slight blush in embarrassment. "That was just a thank you present...from yesterday. I wanted to thank you for saving me and saying all those things about me. They're true aren't they?"

He made a nod, "Of course they are. You're not meaningless to me. You never will be."

Her smile grew wider as he took her hand.

"We have to get to the Chaotix, Charmy has a surprise for you."

"I wonder what it is."

"Hmm, you'll see." He then led her out of the field of flowers.

Later, Shadow and Hannah finally got to the Chaotix and met up with everybody in the garage. They even saw everyone facing Hannah with a sad expression.

Hannah got curious and wondered why everyone was so full of sadness. "What's wrong? Why do all of you seem so sad?"

Charmy flew up to her and tried to look into her eyes without shedding tears. "I'm finished with the machine, Hannah."

"What?"

"You can go home now", Tonya said.

Hannah just stood there with her mouth hung open full of shock and happiness. "I...can go home." She looked back at Shadow, "I can see my grandfather again and once I go back, I'll tell him. I'll tell him I found the other world and that the machine works. Then we could both come here to visit you all. It'll all be so exciting." She then felt a hand touch her shoulder. Her head quickly turned and saw Shadow.

"Hannah", he spoke. "You can never come back here."

"What? Why? This is about us isn't it?" Tears began to appear in her eyes. "No, Shadow! I don't care what happens anymore. I want to be with you no matter what. I want to see you again."

The ebony hedgehog saw the human's tears run down her cheeks and onto the floor. "I'm sorry but this is just the way things are meant to be. It's just too dangerous for you here and you know that. Once you return, I'll destroy the machine connecting to this world and yours. I'm sorry."

Hannah continued to sob more as she clenched both of her fists. "Shadow!" She screamed with sadness. "No!" She kneeled to the floor and continued to sob. "No..."

The hedgehog shook his head slowly and looked down at her. "Hannah, get up and go through the machine."

"No, I..." She then watched as Shadow kneeled down to the floor and pulled her body into his. She just stood there frozen and amazed at what he was doing.

"I'm not going to lose you and if you care too, you'll do as I say and go through that machine."

Hannah couldn't help but to hold him close to her and cry. "I'll miss you Shadow", she sniffed.

Shadow had then helped her off the floor, "Come on. It's time."

She nodded and walked towards the machine.

Charmy flew towards the machine and activated it.

Everyone watched as a bright white light appeared from the center of the machine.

Charmy looked over to Hannah, "Okay Hannah, all you have to do now is walk on through. Well, goodbye."

Before she walked through it, she looked back at Charmy. "Goodbye, Charmy."

The bee made a small smile.

She then looked back at the rest of the group, "Goodbye, everyone. Thank you for everything."

"Goodbye, Hannah", Espio said.

"We'll miss you", Rouge added.

"I-I don't want you to go!" Kayla shouted while sobbing. She was then pulled into a hug by Rouge and continued to cry on her.

"She has to go", Rouge whispered to the child.

She looked back at Shadow and smiled. 'Maybe we'll see each other again...maybe.' She then turned her back and walked into the light. Afterwards the light and Hannah was no longer in sight.

"She's gone", Vector said.

Charmy had his back turned to the group and started to sob. 'I'll miss you Hannah.'

Rouge had her head tilted towards the floor in sadness until she saw Shadow walking towards the machine. She knew he was about to destroy it. She quickly lifted her head up, "Shadow!"

The hedgehog faced her with an emotionless expression.

"Before you destroy that machine, do you think Hannah ever made it back home?"

"Yeah...I think she did and she's very happy."

The bat made a small smile, "Yeah, I think she is too."

**A/N: The final chapter is done! This fic is finally completed! Yes! happyhappyjoyjoy**

**Now I can start on my next fic, 'Every Rose Has its Thorns.' Sadly Rouge won't be in that one. R&R please!**


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